This data file contains the tract-level data used to generate the “Where to Prioritize Emergency Rental Assistance to Keep Renters in Their Homes” feature: the 11 indicators, z-scores for each indicator, the three subindex values, the overall index value, the quantiles for each subindex and the index, the z-scores for each indicator and quantile, and the number of extremely low–income renters and flag for tracts that were grayed out in the feature. The data dictionary provides specific definitions for each of the fields in the provided tract-level CSV and geoJSON.
The research team created the index using data from three sources: American Community Survey (ACS) five-year estimates, the Urban Institute’s “Where Low-Income Jobs Are Being Lost to COVID-19” data tool, and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy (CHAS) dataset. For each source, we used the most recent data available at publication time: the 2014–18 estimates for the ACS, the July 2020 update of Urban’s job-loss data tool, and the 2012–16 CHAS data.
The total index is made up of three subindexes: Equity, Housing Instability Risk, and COVID-19 Impact. Each subindex is made up of two to five indicators, pulled from the three data sources. The indicators were each standardized into z-scores, which were indexed to the state level. The index was constructed with weighted averages of the three subindex values. The feature maps and displays the percentile (instead of raw values) that a tract falls into, both for the full index and each subindex, compared with all other census tracts in its state
The methodology used to generate the data and select indicators and weights can be found here (PDF) . The interactive data visualization powered by these data can be found here.
Data and Resources
Field | Value |
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Modified | 2021-05-14 |
Release Date | 2020-08-19 |
Identifier | c9336b0f-5d98-4f8c-86f7-0036aa93286e |
License | |
Contact Name | Urban Institute |
Contact Email | |
Public Access Level | Public |
Field | Value |
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Original Data Source | 2014-18 ACS, July 2020 update of the Urban Institute’s “Where Low-Income Jobs Are Being Lost to COVID-19” data tool, and the 2012–16 US Department of Housing and Urban Developments Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy data data |
Citation Requirements | Urban Institute. 2020. Revisions. Accessible from https://datacatalog.urban.org/dataset/rental-assistance-priority-index. Data originally sourced from 2014-18 ACS, July 2020 update of the Urban Institute’s “Where Low-Income Jobs Are Being Lost to COVID-19” data tool, and the 2012–16 US Department of Housing and Urban Developments Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy data data , developed at the Urban Institute, and made available under the ODC-BY 1.0 Attribution License. |